Days of the Phoenix
by In The Beginning
Summary: [Sequel to DoD] Their deaths had not been in vain... people continued to fight for their cause. May the words of the Damned live on forever... [Complete]
1. Fourteen Years

(I am going through a massive writing spree...

It's making my head hurt.

This chapter is so incredibly short... but vital.

Vitals dropping!

Let's begin.

Dead Sinners © Nintendo

Child © Me)

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Days of the Phoenix

Chapter One- Fourteen Years

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For as long as anyone could remember, this system had been in place.

Your life is worthless.

Discard of it as soon as you can.

And sickness is the way to do it.

This thought was pounded into the minds of the people... it was all they knew for certain while growing up. It was the thought that drove them to work incessantly, almost to the point of abandoning their families, almost until they reached the verge of hysteria.

It was the final thing to course through their minds as they passed to the next world.

So few people openly defied this longstanding system of early death and sudden decay that when they were discovered, all other tasks were abandoned in favor of forcing the Sinners to pay.

All major events were cancelled on the day of a hanging. The people always wanted to see the faces of the condemned souls, the true embodiment of sin, before they had been killed; the people wanted to witness the world being made more pure by their deaths.

The ensuing discussions would last for nearly a week, before the names and the faces slipped out the people's minds...

Except for the case of the three Sinners.

Fourteen years ago, one Sinner had died while undergoing reformation; his twin brother and the brother's resident had been hanged a day or two later. There was nothing particularly significant about their deaths...

But the murdered man's residents had escaped the punishment...

And the bodies of the three dead Sinners had gone missing.

Such a radical variation from the normal procession of events had horrified the people; how could this have happened? How did the other Sinners get away? And... where had the bodies gone?

Somehow, word had leaked out that the murdered man had fathered a child many years before; her resentment had been building up for these fourteen years, and she had chosen to rise against the system, refusing to believe in the dogma that had taken away her only blood family.

The Sinners used her as their symbol; she was living proof that no matter how hard they could try to silence the Damned, they would continue to speak, their voices echoing from beyond the grave.

Over these fourteen years, the Damned had gathered, had organized themselves... and had sown the seeds of discontent into the general public.

They could not be satisfied with their current situation...

The whispers of rebellion were blowing in the wind.

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(End chapter one.

Chapter two should be up in a few days... please review!)


	2. Semblance of Normalcy

(Okay, yet another short chapter... but there are actually people in this one, so it's all good.

There's probably going to be a couple short chapters in this story... but I can promise you all at least one long, deep and meaningful chapter. Everybody loves long, deep, meaningful chapters!

Unless you don't.

In which case, you'll be stuck with a long, deep, meaningful chapter.

Let's begin.

Tyler, Leslie, Victor © Nintendo

Erika, Sidney's daughter © Me)

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Days of the Phoenix

Chapter Two- Semblance of Normalcy

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A young blonde girl was running down the street, her light backpack bouncing against her back. She burst through the front door of a small house, making sure that she closed and locked the door behind her.

"Mom, Dad! I'm home!"

Leslie Chase stuck her head out from the kitchen doorway.

"Hey, Erika... how was your day?"

The girl shed her backpack, dropping it on the floor as she rushed into the kitchen to give her mother a hug.

"The teacher was talking about how those Sinners that disappeared are a threat to everyone, and how Sinners are bad people in general... Mom, we're not bad, are we? We're good, right?"

"Of course, honey," Leslie smiled, her amber eyes reflecting a sense of weariness as she embraced her daughter...

For fourteen years, they had been hiding, finding the people who supported their cause... and raising a ten-year-old daughter amidst the chaos had not exactly made things easier. But they never regretted it, even for an instant.

Leslie heard a crash coming from the basement, followed by a loud curse in a foreign language.

"What's Uncle Victor working on now, Mom?" Erika asked.

"I'm not sure... why don't you go ask him, and tell your dad to get up here?" Leslie suggested. "I need to speak to him about something."

Erika rushed off towards the basement, her rapid footsteps echoing throughout the house.

"Daaaad, Mom said she needs to talk to you!"

As she entered the basement, Erika saw Tyler Chase and Victor Niguel picking up shards of broken glass from the cold cement floor. Tyler looked over to his daughter, his brown eyes reflecting his curiosity.

"She did? What about?"

"I dunno," Erika shrugged. "But she told me to get you."

Tyler sighed, throwing a handful of broken glass into a large plastic garbage bin.

"Alright... help your uncle clean up this mess."

Erika quickly bounced over to Victor, who was muttering dark words as Tyler went back upstairs.

"Hi, Uncle Victor!" she chirped happily as she began picking up small pieces of glass. Victor glanced up, his cool, dark eyes peering through his ragged black hair.

"Hey, Erika..." he muttered, his voice slightly sullen. "How are you today? What did you do in school?"

So he had acknowledged her existence asked how she was doing today... despite the broken object, he must have been in a good mood.

"I'm okay..." Erika replied. "The teacher was telling us about how Sinners and the Damned are bad people..."

"Your teacher's--"

"Full of crap, I know."

"Good girl."

Erika beamed as they finished cleaning the broken glass... getting Victor to compliment someone was a difficult feat.

"_Victor! Erika! Both of you need to come up here, now! We're meeting!_"

Victor cursed in his native tongue.

"Don't tell me we have to..."

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"We need to move again."

Those four words elicited a whine of protest from Erika, a nervous glance out of Leslie, a sigh of frustration from Tyler, and a very loud Romanian curse from Victor.

"When did you plan on giving us time to pack our shit, damnit?!" Victor growled, ignoring the dirty look Leslie shot him as he scowled angrily at the woman who had spoken.

Her long, dark brown hair fell to the middle of her back, falling around and framing her pale face. She was still young, and her face was free of lines, free of signs of old age or weariness; but her piercing hazel eyes reflected maturity beyond her years as she glared back at dark-haired researcher across the kitchen table.

"Dr. Stannis only called and warned us about twenty minutes ago, Victor. Be thankful that he was actually able to warn us this time-- last time, his call had almost come too late."

Yes, she bore a striking resemblance to her mother; but her bright hazel eyes and no-nonsense choice of words betrayed her as the child of a Kasal.

"He said the Police would be here at eleven; that gives us about six hours to gather our stuff and go," she continued. "We should probably get started now, so we're not rushing to get out."

"Yes... that sounds like a good idea," Leslie nodded, lightly brushing her short green bangs out of her tired face.

"Erika, you help your Uncle Victor pack his research equipment," Tyler instructed as everyone rose to their feet. "Your mom and I will get your stuff."

"Alright, Dad."

Erika and Victor descended to the basement as Leslie and Tyler went to their room.

The young woman gently fingered her cross before leaving the room to go pack her things.

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(End chapter two.

So, amidst all this death and chaos, Leslie and Tyler were able to get hitched and have a kid... some sense of happiness managed to creep out after all!

Also, I kinda made her seem a little Mary-Sue with the "wise beyond her years" bit... but wouldn't _you_ be wise beyond your years if you were growing up with that kind of shit since you were eight?

Chapter three will be "started-in-progress" soon... please review!)


	3. Moving

(For those of you who have read the latest chapter of "First Comes Love. . ." by TCGeek, as of 10/22/07, you will recall that she says that life is not all gloom and doom.

I am here to tell you that she is WRONG if you try applying that ideology to this fic. GLOOM AND DOOM, MY READERS. GLOOM AND FUCKING DOOM.

Except not yet. In a later chapter.

Yet another short chapter... there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG WITH SHORT CHAPTERS. Anyone who tells you otherwise is WRONG.

Let's begin.

Victor, Tyler, Leslie © Nintendo

Sidney's daughter, Erika © Me

Dr. Niles Stannis © TCGeek)

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Days of the Phoenix

Chapter Three- Moving

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"Tyler, are you sure you have everything?"

"Yeah, I'm sure..."

At ten forty-five, they had all gathered in the basement, each person carrying a bag stuffed to the brim with personal effects- clothes, pictures of family, and the like; a few of them had packed snacks and water in case they got hungry along the way.

Erika carried Victor's bag; the black-eyed researcher was forced to carry a heavy messenger's bag, completely filled with results from his research- cures for various diseases.

All his works-in-progress had been burned to destroy the evidence.

"What about you, Leslie?"

"I have all of my things, as well as Erika's."

"Good..."

"And I got everything I could take from the 'lab'," Victor added, patting the messenger bag gently. "What about you?"

The brunette woman pointed to the oversized tote bag that was slung over her shoulder.

"We should go now," she muttered softly. "Before they come."

"Then someone help me with this," Tyler spoke, trying to shove a bookcase that was pressed tightly against the wall. "It's stuck-- I need a hand."

Victor carefully placed the messenger bag on the ground before he and Leslie helped the blonde man shove the bookcase to the side...

...revealing a hole in the floor that lead to the underground passage.

The woman shone her flashlight into the hole, biting her lip softly.

"At least there's stairs this time..." she commented. "Victor, you go first."

"Oh, hell no. _You're_ going first this time."

"Victor, you're the one with all the research and the brains to understand it all. If you're caught, they win. We wouldn't be able to create cures fast enough if you're gone. You go first."

"While I'm so proud of you for finally realizing I'm a genius, I have to ask... are you an idiot?!" Victor snapped. "If they catch _you,_ then they've finally silenced the last Kasal- they'll have gotten rid of your entire family. Then, everyone will lose the will to fight the system, and it wins. Do you want that? Didn't think so. Go."

"No!"

"Oh, for God's sake!" Leslie screeched. "Tyler, help me here."

Leslie stood behind the woman as Tyler crept behind Victor... before both husband and wife shoved the stubborn researcher and young woman down the stairs, into the passage.

"_Ow!_"

"What the hell!?"

"Oh, quit complaining," Leslie scowled as she, Tyler and Erika walked down the stairs. "Here, Victor- take your bag."

Victor grumbled, taking the heavy bag and slinging it over his shoulder as the young woman pressed a button on the wall.

The bookcase slid over the hole, hiding the entrance to the passageway, sealing it shut so that the passage was inaccessible from the other side.

"Why can't we have one of those switches on the other side?" Erika queried, clinging tightly to her mother's arm as the five people began quietly walking down the long, dark passageway. "Wouldn't it be easier to get here, then?"

"It would, Erika, but if we did that, then it would be easy for the Police to follow us and find all the people who are helping us," the woman explained gently, shining the flashlight a few feet in front of the group.

"Oh..."

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At three in the morning, Niles Stannis was woken abruptly by a loud pounding sound coming from his basement.

Sighing, he rose from the couch, slowly walking down the stairs to his dark basement and opening the trapdoor in the middle of the room.

The first person to step out of the passage was Leslie, who was carrying a sleeping Erika on her back.

She was soon followed by her husband, who struggled to keep his eyes open.

Victor was next, grumbling as he rubbed the soreness out of his shoulder...

The last person to resurface was the woman, who was tiredly brushing her hair out of her pale face.

"Thank you again for warning us, Dr. Stannis," she spoke softly, bags beginning to form under her hazel eyes.

"Don't thank me; thank Officer Montag for being able to tell me this time," Niles replied, his voice reflecting his own exhaustion. "It's a damn good thing he's sympathized with our cause, isn't it? I'll get you to your new home after we've all had a chance to sleep... Leslie, Tyler, you can take the room on the second floor, as always... you can put Erika in the guest room, if you want."

"Thank you, Dr. Stannis..." Tyler mumbled as he and his wife slowly went upstairs.

"Victor--"

"I'll stay here," the dark-haired researcher muttered, placing his messenger bag on the floor and sitting down against the wall.

"Whatever floats your boat... and you, Miss Kasal..."

"The couch will be fine."

"Very well."

As they slowly walked up to the main floor, Niles Stannis placed a strong, comforting hand on the woman's shoulder. She turned her head to see his tired, lined face, his dark eyes looking directly at her, and a small smile playing at his lips.

"It's good to see that you're still well, Rylee."

She smiled softly.

"Same for you, Dr. Stannis."

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(End chapter three.

Nine chapters after we first meet her, we finally learn her name...

Like you didn't see that coming.

Please review!)


	4. Restless

(Wow! I've been writing a lot, haven't I?

Just a word of wisdom: Robert the haunted doll is FUCKING CREEPY. HOLY SHIT. I've never been so scared of anything in my life that wasn't within 300 miles of me. I made the mistake of Googling that damn doll approximately 5 minutes before I went to bed last night... and now I'm paranoid that it's following me.

IT'S IN KEY WEST. THAT'S FAR FAR AWAY. WHY MUST I BE SO PARANOID. I'll never see Dr. Hoffman in the same light again because of that damn thing.

Ugh... forget it. I'll conquer my fear eventually...

Let's begin.

Victor, Tyler, Leslie © Nintendo

Rylee, boy © Me)

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Days of Damnation

Chapter Four- Restless

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Three weeks after moving in, they had begun to get back into their normal routine.

"Mom, I'm home!"

"How was your day, Erika?"

Erika _loved_ the new house; it was over twice the size of the one they had been living in- it even had a second floor! There was plenty of space to run around, just in case of a dreary day. Leslie loved it too; there was a much smaller chance of someone stumbling in on one of the more intimate moments she shared with Tyler.

Victor had attempted to marry the large, dark basement the instant he saw it; he had only come up to the main floor three times since they moved in, thanks to his darling "niece" and her willingness to bring food down to the basement.

Rylee kept her thoughts of the new house hidden from the others; but the way she kept drifting throughout the rooms, they guessed that she was just tolerating the building.

"The teacher was talking about how everyone was happy when Adam revealed the everlasting truth to us, or something like that," Erika frowned as she waltzed into the kitchen, taking a soda out of the refrigerator, along with a sandwich.

"Not everyone was happy," Leslie muttered as she began chopping up onions for the stew she was making.

"I know... I'm gonna go say hi to Uncle Victor."

"Make sure you bring the sandwich with you."

"Alright, Mom."

Erika dashed out of the kitchen, the sandwich clutched tightly in her hand.

Leslie heard the front door open once again.

"Les, it's me..."

Leslie smiled, walking out of the kitchen and into the living room to greet her husband.

"Hey, Tyler... how was the meeting?"

Tyler sighed, flopping onto the couch. Leslie sat next to him, gently massaging his tense shoulders.

"Well, the second lieutenant was able to get some higher-ranking military officers to come to our side, so that could never hurt... and Montag converted another Police officer to our cause. A bunch of influential politicians are going to help us, too... we're getting allies in all the right places. We may be able to start _doing_ something before long..."

"Oh, that's good..." Leslie replied, a genuine look of hope on her face.

"Yeah..." Tyler nodded, a small smile creeping onto his tired face...

"Hey, Leslie... I hate to interrupt your time with your husband, but can I talk to you?"

Leslie and Tyler looked up to see Rylee standing nearby, nervously playing with her long brown hair.

"Yeah, sure..." Leslie nodded.

"...in private?"

The green-haired woman slowly rose from the couch. She and Rylee walked into the kitchen.

"What is it, Rylee?" Leslie asked softly.

Rylee fidgeted.

"...I want to get out of this house and _do_ something," she finally admitted, her hazel eyes looking directly into Leslie's amber ones. "Everywhere we go, I'm always forced to stay inside, or where it's 'safe'-- I want _out._"

"Rylee, please," Leslie spoke, her voice taking a slight pleading tone. "I can understand your feelings, but if something happens to you..._please._ Just wait a little longer..."

Rylee sighed, quite obviously frustrated.

"Fine."

She shuffled out of the room, quickly being replaced by Erika.

"Mom, Uncle Victor said he needs you to buy these things for him by tonight," she proclaimed, stuffing a piece of paper into her mother's hands. Leslie glanced at the list briefly.

"...alright, Erika..." she sighed. "C'mon, get your sweater... you're coming with me this time."

Erika quickly ran to get her sweater.

Leslie threw the onions into the stew and put the lid on the pot.

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_Damnit, Victor, I am never shopping for you ever again._

Leslie silently cursed her friend as she and Erika each carried a heavy paper bag, filled to the brim with various items best left unmentioned.

"Mom... what's all this stuff for, anyways?"

"For Uncle Victor's experiments, I presume."

"...why does he need sheep brains?"

Leslie grimaced.

"Probably to do some tests for meningitis... I don't know. And quite frankly, I don't _want_ to know. You can ask him when we get home."

Erika made sure to put that on her list of things to do...

She heard shuffling footsteps behind her. The young girl looked over her shoulder to see who was walking behind them--

"Mom, there's a kid following us."

Leslie turned around to see if this was true...

The boy was filthy; his ragged clothes hung off his gaunt frame, making his bony arms and legs look even thinner. His short hair was colored a dark brown from all the dirt in it, but Leslie could almost see blonde roots under all that grime...

Even when Leslie and Erika stopped walking, the boy kept moving forward; he only stood still when he was within three feet of the Chases. His dull eyes fixated on Leslie...

"...help me..."

His voice was weak, and his body began to show fatigue as well; his scrawny legs began to tremble underneath him.

"Help me..." he repeated himself quietly. "Please... can you help me...? I'm hungry... and I'm tired of being sick... and alone..."

Leslie froze, staring at him in shock.

Was he really tired of being sick...? A more likely possibility was that he was a spy; they often used "poor" children to reveal the hiding spots of the Damned. Should she trust him...?

"_Please_... I have no home... no family..." the boy pleaded, taking a small, staggering step forward...

Something in the boy's voice struck Leslie as being sincere...

"...come on. Can you walk three blocks?"

The boy quickly nodded, closely following Leslie and Erika back to their home.

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(End chapter four.

New character, yay! New characters are usually fun!

That fucking doll is still creepy as shit, man.

Please review!)


	5. Ghosts

(Right, before we begin, I'd like to bitch someone out.

The person who's going around pretend to be MoonCat- you stupid bastard! Do you really think your poor grammar and disgusting reviews would be ignored if you used the name of a relatively famous anonymous reviewer? Bastard! I hope your keyboard falls on the floor and breaks your foot!

And since I'm talking about MoonCat... Yes, MoonCat, I did submit it to that contest on deviantART. Look for the person with the head trauma who calls themself "SomeRandomGirl".

And with that stuff out of the way... chapter... this is five? Chapter six is already in progress as well... along with like five other things. Yay multitasking!

Let's begin.

Leslie, Tyler, Victor © Nintendo

Rylee, boy © Me)

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Days of the Phoenix

Chapter Five- Ghosts

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"Leslie, what the hell were you _thinking?!_ No, wait-- don't answer that. You obviously _weren't,_ were you?!"

Victor, Tyler and Leslie were gathered in the kitchen. The nameless child still slept in the living room.

"Victor, look at him, they _never_ make the children look _that_ desperate..." Leslie began.

"So why wouldn't they start now?!" Victor snapped, not bothering to keep his voice down. "It'd be the perfect disguise- get a kid and actually make them _look_ homeless, and then we'd be willing to take them in--"

"Victor, the kid could barely stand!" Leslie retorted, her voice creeping to a hysterical pitch.

"Okay, both of you just _shut up!_" Tyler barked, fed up with their bickering.

Leslie and Victor grew silent.

"Leslie... you should have given it more thought before you brought the kid home," Tyler sighed.

Leslie scowled angrily, but said nothing. Victor let a triumphant smirk form on his face.

"And_ you,_ Victor, are massively overreacting to the situation."

The smile vanished, being quickly replaced by a sullen frown. Leslie grinned.

"We can prevent this from being a bad situation," Tyler began, "by keeping an eye on him. We don't let him out of the house alone, we don't let him near the phones or the computer... if he _is_ a child spy, he can't do anything about it if he can't contact anyone. Right?"

"...fine," Victor grumbled, his black eyes briefly flashing with anger.

"So, who's going to watch him first?" Tyler asked.

"I will," Leslie offered.

"Fuck that- get Rylee to do it," Victor snapped. "She never _does_ anything but bitch about being bored, so give her something to do."

"You know, not _everyone_ likes staying inside all the time, Victor," Leslie muttered as she walked out of the kitchen, headed for Rylee's room. Tyler and Victor entered the living room, keeping an eye on the young boy, who continued sleeping on the couch.

Leslie had forced him to take a shower, and had given him clean clothes; putting them on was all he had energy for before he collapsed from sheer exhaustion. His soft, blonde hair was matted against his tanned face as he squirmed fitfully in his sleep.

"Do_you_ think he's really homeless?" Victor asked, watching the boy, peering through his long, black bangs.

"I... don't know," Tyler sighed, running a hand through his blonde hair. "But I don't-- ...alarm bells aren't going off all over the place. This kid, at least to some extent, is telling the truth."

Leslie suddenly came running back into the living room...

Her amber eyes were filled with fear and worry.

"She's not here!"

"_What?!_"

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Rylee finished clumsily braiding her hair as she walked down the street.

She had found a pair of oval-lensed glasses in the house when they moved in; she had pushed out the lenses and placed the frames on her face. Her blouse and skirt clung to and fitted her shapely body, accentuating her curves...

Yes, she knew that this could be described as a less-than-mature decision...

But Rylee was a wild child, and refused to be told that she couldn't do something.

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"It's been _seven hours_ already..."

"Something's happened, something has to have happened to her... she's been captured, hasn't she--"

"Les, there would be something on the TV if she'd been caught..."

Leslie, Tyler and Victor were sitting on the couch near the still-sleeping boy at two in the morning, tiredly watching the nighttime news, silently praying that Rylee wouldn't appear as a sudden big news break...

"Why couldn't she at least have left her cell phone on...?" Leslie murmured, playing nervously with her green hair.

"Because she doesn't want us calling and nagging her," Victor growled.

"...I'm going to go make sure that Erika's still asleep," Tyler sighed, rising from the couch to walk to Erika's room. "Don't kill each other."

"Ha ha. You're fucking hilarious."

"...where do you think she went...?" Leslie asked softly as her husband walked out of the room.

"Out, of course."

"Very clever, Victor; how about a real answer--"

The front door opened--

In walked a very disheveled Rylee Kasal.

"_Rylee, where the hell have you been?!_"

Victor and Leslie rose to their feet, rushing to the young woman's side; Tyler reappeared in the living room after hearing the commotion.

"Rylee, where were you, we were _worried--_"

"What the _fuck,_ Rylee! I'm serious-- how fucking stupid _are_ you?!"

The smug grin never left Rylee's face.

"One-night stands are underrated..."

She danced away from Victor's slap, fleeing to her room to retire for the evening, giggling uncontrollably.

"_De pulărie curvă..._"

"That woman is something else..." Tyler shook his head.

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"_Food?!_"

"Name first."

Tyler held a bowl of stew just out of the now-conscious boy's reach. The child stretched, desperately trying to reach the food, his green eyes shining eagerly.

"C'mon, I'll tell you after I eaaaaaat!"

"You'll tell us before," Victor snapped.

"But I'm hungryyyy!"

"Oh, just give him the food!" Leslie sighed exasperatedly.

Tyler slowly handed the bowl to the green-eyed boy as Victor grumbled something about Leslie being too soft.

With great haste, the boy began shoveling food into his mouth. The three adults were almost certain that he was going to choke, he was eating so fast...

"So, what's your name?" Tyler finally asked once the boy finished licking the bowl clean and wiping the stains off of his mouth.

"Alex..."

"You got a last name, Alex?" Victor queried, his voice drawling.

"Yeah... Stiles. My full name's Alexander Stiles."

A stunned silence filled the room.

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(End chapter five.

Not a lot to say. Please review!)


	6. Lost History

(Okay, serious moment:

I watch this one person on deviantART, and she recently posted a journal about this girl named Erin. Erin lives in the US, is in her late twenties... and has Chiari malformations and cranial lesions.

She has no job, so she can't get money. Her state is poor, and she doesn't meet requirements for Medicaid. Since she has no job, she has no health insurance. So, she signed up for an account at megaDownloads...? I believe that's the site's name. This site says that if she gets over five million downloads, they'll give her ten thousand dollars.

Then she can get one of the four operations she needs to save her life. She set up an account and has given it the name Project Download.

I know that there's a bunch of people that read my shit; please, go to projecterin dot com and download the file. There's no viruses- my computer would already be fucked up if there were. Please- I'm pointing this out and advertising it to help save someone's life.

Somber moment over; let's begin.

Leslie, Victor, Tyler, Derek, Angie © Nintendo

Alex, Erika © Me)

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Days of the Phoenix

Chapter Six- Lost History

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For several seconds, there was silence as Leslie, Tyler and Victor stared at the child.

"...what? Why are you looking at me like that?" Alex squirmed under the intense gaze of the three adults.

"You said... Stiles?" Tyler spoke softly, his brown eyes wide with disbelief.

"Y-yeah..."

"How old are you?" Victor demanded, his black eyes flashing.

"Uh... I turned thirteen a few months ago..." Alex spoke carefully, fearing Victor's tense voice.

"You said... that you had no parents," Leslie recalled. "So... how do you know your last name...?"

Alex shifted where he sat.

"I never knew my dad," he began. "Mom was out of her mind... she killed herself when I was six. The night before she died, she gave me this ring..."

He held up his hand to show off the plain silver band that rested on his thumb; something was etched into the silver object.

"The thing I remember most about her is when she would say, 'Remember that you're a Stiles', because she said it so many times.

"After she died, I went from foster home to foster home... I _hated _it. I was always getting sick, and the foster parents couldn't understand that I didn't like being unhealthy. After I turned eleven, I gave up-- I ran away. For about two years, I've been living on the streets..."

"...let me see that ring, please."

Victor and Tyler stared confusedly at Leslie as Alex pulled the ring off his bony finger, handing it to the green-haired woman.

"Les...?"

"Derek gave Angie a ring about two weeks after... after that operation," Leslie murmured, carefully examining the inscription in the ring. "She showed it to me one day when she came to Caduceus..."

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_"Leeeeeslieeee, where are youuuuu?"_

_Leslie looked over her shoulder to see an extremely bouncy Angie Thompson hurrying over to her._

_"Well, you're in a good mood today, Angie," Leslie laughed as she hugged her friend. "What's up?"_

_Angie beamed as she held her hand out, showing off the silver ring that now graced her slender hand._

_"Last night, Derek and I... shared a special moment," she giggled. "He gave me this ring this morning... and said it was a temporary engagement ring."_

_"Oh, congratulations, Angie!" Leslie smiled at her friend, hugging Angie once again. "You so have to make me a bridesmaid!"_

_"You know it! But did you see what Derek had engraved in it?"_

_"No-- what's it say?"_

_Angie showed Leslie the engraving..._

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_

_Derek Stiles & Angela Thompson- 2017 -Together, till death do us part._

Tears came to Leslie's amber eyes as the memories of more carefree times came flooding back.

"S-she said that he called it their temporary engagement ring..." she whispered, trying not to cry. "...their engagement ring..."

Tyler placed a comforting hand on his wife's back, letting her rest her head on his shoulder.

"...do we trust him, then?" the blonde man murmured.

"...it adds credibility to his story, but we still have to be careful," Victor hissed quietly. "...if someone keeps an eye on him until I can trust him, I won't bitch about him being in the house."

Leslie carefully handed the ring back to Alexander, who had distracted himself by plucking lint puffs out of the couch. He shoved the ring back onto his bony thumb.

"Alex, you're going to stay with us," the green-haired woman spoke softly.

"W-what? N-no, it's okay, I don't want to be a problem--"

"No, we don't want to hear any of it," Tyler interjected. "You're going to stay here, alright?"

"...but--"

"If you protest one more time, I'm going to staple you to the couch," Victor snapped.

There were no further disputes.

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"Hey, Miss Leslie...?"

"Yes, Alex?"

Two weeks had passed since they had discovered the lost child of Derek and Angie. After finally getting three meals a day that actually filled him up, Alex's thin frame filled out nicely; his scrawny limbs became much more solid, and his gaunt face had rounded out, taking on the same shape of his deceased mother's.

"Why did you take me in?" he queried, helping Leslie clean the kitchen.

The green-haired woman paused.

"...we knew your parents, when they were alive," she began softly, scrubbing the grease off the stove. "So, when we learned that you were their child... we weren't going to let you go back to the streets to fend for yourself."

Alex was satisfied with that answer, and continued washing dishes.

The phone began to ring; it suddenly grew silent halfway through the second ring, shortly after caller ID revealed the incoming number.

"Who keeps answering the phone?"

"Rylee does; Tyler's usually out at meetings, I'm taking care of chores, Erika is at school or talking to Victor, and Victor never leaves that stupid basement..."

Hurried footsteps suddenly resounded throughout the house; Rylee appeared in the kitchen, a worried look in her hazel eyes.

"Leslie, we have a _big_ problem."

--------

(End chapter six.

So, did I tell you all I bought a new notebook? It's wonderful. The cover is black, it's plastic, and there's no chance in hell of pages falling out of it. Score one for the ITB.

Don't forget Project Download.

Please review!)


	7. Emergencies

(May I advise you all to never leave your writing notebooks at school. It was horrible; I had this chapter written yesterday, but I can't post it if I don't know what I wrote, can I?

And as of now, I'm writing the dramatic chapter that happens before the chapter that's actually the reason that I wrote this fic to begin with. That's right; I wrote this story for one chapter.

I had fun writing the other chapters though, so s'all good.

Oh wow, I'm tired. Is this what it feels like to actually have done homework for once?

Oh, and MoonCat- I can empathize with you. I've had a lot of family members die...

That's not a good thing, is it?

Let's begin.

Victor, Tyler, Leslie, Dr. Clarks, Dr. Owen(damn troll-baby) © Nintendo

Dr. Stannis © TCGeek

Rylee, Erika, Alexander, cabbie © Me)

--------

Days of the Phoenix

Chapter Seven- Emergencies

--------

"You're fucking_kidding _me."

"I wish, Victor."

The four adults and two children were gathered in the living room.

"An outbreak of disease...?" Tyler spoke, his brown eyes wide with disbelief.

"Yep," Rylee nodded, her face devoid of happiness. "And the people who are infected... well, let's just say that they're nice and important to our cause."

"...they're trying to wipe us out?!" Leslie realized.

"Everyone that's been infected is a high-ranking person who's on our side."

"So what do we do?" Victor queried.

"Dr. Stannis just called," Rylee informed. "They have the sick people in havens, and emergency operating teams are being organized. Tyler, Leslie-- you're an emergency team for the Halsted and Evanston haven."

"Right-- we're going now."

Husband and wife left together.

"Victor, you're helping the researchers on Addison and Ogden."

"Got it." Victor also left.

"You two," Rylee finally turned to face the children, "are with me. We're delivery people."

"Whuzzat mean?" Erika inquired, her amber eyes staring at the brunette, shining with curiosity.

"It means that when the operators find out what medicine they need, we run out and get it from the lab and give it to the emergency teams. It also means that you two have to listen to me, keep your cell phones on, and do exactly what I say. Alright?"

"Yes, Miss Rylee."

--------

"Dr. Clarks, we have all the equipment ready."

"Alright then..."

Dr. Stephen Clarks snapped on a pair of surgical gloves.

His dark brown hair and beard were streaked with grey, but his brown eyes shone with life.

At the tender young age of fifty-five, he figured that he still had enough energy left in him to defy this system of oppression.

"Let's begin, shall we?"

--------

"I hope this doesn't end up like last time..."

"Last time? What do you mean, Les?"

Leslie fidgeted as Tyler cut into the patient's large abdomen.

"Last time I was so directly involved with a life-saving operation..." she began softly, "...it was the one that got Derek, Angie, Dr. Kasal and the Chief in trouble..."

Tyler put down his scalpel just long enough to place a comforting hand on his wife's shoulder.

"Les... it's okay," the blonde man spoke gently. "Nothing's going to happen to us... and we're doing this for them. Wherever they are... they'll be watching over us. 'Cuz you know Derek would never forgive us if we got caught."

A small chuckle escaped Leslie's lips.

"Alright, Tyler. I believe you."

Tyler refocused on the patient, spreading the incision he had made...

--------

"We're getting calls from almost everyone--"

"What do they need?" Victor cut off the young, nervous researcher. "Get to the point-- what are the patients infected with?"

"They have no idea-- everyone's saying that the patients have spontaneously forming lacerations on the organs-- no identifiable cause. And whenever they suture the wounds, new cuts form..."

Victor let out a grim smile.

_This is the __second__ time that my research is used against me... won't they ever learn?_

"Tell them all to keep suturing. Then gather all the researchers here. Emergency meeting!"

"Yes, Dr. Niguel!"

Victor let himself become temporarily lost in a moment of nostalgia.

_This better have a happier ending than last time._

--------

Rylee's cell phone began to ring.

"Hello, this is Audrey."

"We need you to get this medicine to the emergency teams. It's to be injected into the affected organs."

"Got it. Thanks, Victor."

She hung up.

"C'mon, Alex, Erika-- let's go."

The three people piled into the last car parked in the driveway.

"When we get there, this is what you'll need to do..."

--------

"Dr. Owen, she's arrived with the medicine."

"Ah... excellent. Would you please take over for a little while? I want to meed the legendary lost daughter..."

"Of course."

Dr. Owen left the operating room--

"Ah... you must be Rylee Kasal."

Rylee smiled, shaking the shorter man's hand briefly before handing him a small bag of vials filled with a purple fluid.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, sir."

"Oh, please- the pleasure is mine. I've heard much about you..."

"None of it good, I'm sure. The medicine is to be injected into the infected organs... good luck with your patients, Dr. Owen."

"Of course- be safe, Rylee. You can never be too careful in times like this."

_How many times have I heard that, now...?_

"Good-bye, Dr. Owen."

Rylee left...

She couldn't shake that uneasy chill that crept up her spine.

--------

Alex and Erika hopped into the cab, Erika's backpack filled with the medicine, hidden underneath a layer of crumpled papers.

"You kids are a little young to be riding in cabs alone, aren't you?" the cabbie asked.

"Mom told us to take a cab," Erika replied. "It's an emergency, she said."

"How you gonna pay? She give you money?"

"She said to put it on my uncle's bill," Alex retorted.

The cabbie laughed.

"Where's Miss Rylee sendin' you two?"

"We have to give stuff to all the North Side havens, she said," Erika informed, clutching her backpack after buckling her seatbelt. "She said to start at Damen and go south from there."

"Alright then; hold onto that bag-- it's gonna be a bumpy ride."

--------

"This patient's good to go..."

Dr. Clarks placed the bandage over the final sutured wound, onto the patient's chest.

"Let's get the next patient in here."

"Yes, Dr. Clarks."

--------

"Dr. Niguel, we're getting new calls; some of the doctors have finished treating their patients- so far, no deaths."

"Of course there aren't any," Victor couldn't help but grin. "_I_ made the cure; did they really think that anyone would die if I was involved?"

"Not for a moment, Dr. Niguel. But perhaps you'll want to call Miss Kasal now, and let her know?"

--------

"Audrey here."

"Most of the doctors are done operating. You can stop running around now."

"Good. See you at home, Victor."

Rylee hung up.

A small smile played at her lips as she called Erika.

"...Erika? Uncle Victor called me-- you and Alex need to come home now. ...you'll see your mom and dad when they get home. ...alright. Bye, Erika. I'll see you when you get home."

The crisis had been averted.

--------

(End chapter seven.

Whoosh! Lots of action, and we finally see Dr. Clarks!

And that evil demon troll-baby. You would worry about a guy working in the medical field when he has red eyes, wouldn't you?

Please review!)


	8. Silence

(After this chapter is the chapter before the chapter that's the reason that I wrote this whole story wow this is a long run-on sentence!

Alright, I'm good now.

Does anyone else hate Savato?

Also, I wrote an essay summarizing "Days of Damnation" on my deviantART account... I want you all to read it, because there's a special cutscene there. I want to know what you all thought of the cutscene, please!

TCGeek, I already know what YOU thought of it. :P

Let's begin.

Tyler, Sidney(briefly mentioned in passing), Dr. Owen(TROLL!) © Nintendo

Rylee © Me)

--------

Days of the Phoenix

Chapter Eight- Silence

--------

"Rylee... Rylee, wake up."

Rylee tiredly swatted at the hand resting on her shoulder.

"Rylee, wake up or I'll pour ice into your bed."

Her hazel eyes snapped open.

"You will _not_, Tyler."

Tyler smiled briefly as Rylee sat up, yawning tiredly.

"Don't tell me you've forgotten that you were coming to the meeting with me today..."

Rylee groaned, making a face.

"Fine then, I won't tell you."

Tyler laughed, leaving Rylee's room, closing the door behind him.

She collapsed back onto the mattress...

"_Get up and get dressed, Rylee. You can sleep in the car._"

_Damn._

Rylee got up.

--------

"Tyler, what exactly do you _do_ in these meetings?"

Tyler and Rylee quietly sipped their coffee as they sat in Tyler's car, waiting for someone else to show up before going inside. Tyler bit his lip softly, thinking.

"Well, normally we say who we've converted to our cause," he began. "Then we try to plan ways to make things right... it usually degrades to crude language and pointless insults."

"So, I'm coming to this meeting... to watch you all act like a bunch of morons?"

Tyler chuckled as he finished his coffee.

"A little bit... but we've actually come to a decision as to what to do."

Rylee's head shot up.

"Really?"

"Yeah... but it's not exactly... peaceful. We want your opinion on the issue. If you don't like it... we'll try to pick something else, instead."

"Well, how bad is it...?"

--------

Rylee just stared in shock.

"_This_is the best you could come up with...?"

"Sad as this may sound, Miss Rylee... this is all we could _agree_ on, as a group. Dr. Owen suggested it, initially..."

Rylee's hazel eyes glanced down once again at the detailed papers in her hands.

"A group of people who want to save lives... choose to correct the situation they're living in... by killing hundreds of thousands of people using explosives."

"We'd only bomb major cities- cities where the ideology is strongest," the military officer assured. "And before we did that, we'd warn the people on our side before the bombs fell. Over eighty percent of the population wouldn't even be affected by this."

"...what are the targets?"

Rylee was handed a list. Her hazel eyes glanced at the names of the cities on the paper.

"...so many places... Chicago?! And Detroit... New York, Atlanta... ...we're on this list."

"What good would this be for, if Adam were to keep living?"

The young Kasal woman sighed.

"...ask me at the end of the meeting. ...I need to think about this for a little while..."

"Of course, Miss Rylee..."

The meeting went on as Rylee nervously fingered her cross, deep in thought.

_Dad... what should I do...?_

The voice that had always guided her was silent.

--------

(End chapter eight.

Wow, big important decision time. What does she choose?!

Please review!)


	9. Loss

(OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG.

At what point did it start looking like "GOM" instead of "OMG"?

Things have been really whacked out for me lately. Like, I'm not even kidding... right now, I'm having yet another "I'm out of my fucking mind" experience.

Did you know that I miscounted in chapter two? I said four words- Rylee said five words.

WHAT IS TWO PLUS TWO?

I think after I finish this and write TCGeek's oneshot(IT'S COMING DAMNIT XD) I'm taking a small break... I've been running nonstop since four days after school started. Actually, before that... more like two days after school started. UGH BRAIN STOP BEING IN SO MUCH PAIN.

Ahem... next chapter is the super-awesome chapter that is totally cool. Believe it!

Let's begin. (Cripes I'm so tired)

Tyler, Victor, Leslie, Dr. Owen © Nintendo

Rylee, Erika, Alex, Police officer © Me)

--------

Days of the Phoenix

Chapter Nine- Loss

--------

"Tyler, have you packed everything?"

"Yeah- help me pack Erika's stuff, would you, Les?"

Rylee had, albeit with great reluctance, agreed to the plan.

With less than an hour to go until the bombs would fall, there was a mad rush to pack as many personal articles as they could before they had to go into hiding...

"Mom, Dad, we're ready to go!"

"Then you two go and help Uncle Victor pack his things; he has a lot of equipment he'll need to take with him."

Erika bounced out of her parents' room.

"Alex, c'mon! We have to go help Uncle Victor!"

The two children hurried down to the basement, where Victor was energetically stuffing his equipment into a suitcase.

"Uncle Victor, we're here to help!"

"You are? Good- there's a bag by that bookcase over there; put as much stuff on the shelves as you can fit into the bag!"

Rylee had finished packing. Now, she nervously paced her room, worrying incessantly about what would happen...

Absentmindedly, she fingered the chains around her neck--

Rylee froze.

The locket was still there...

Her cross was gone.

--------

"_Damnit,_ Rylee, we've only got fifteen minutes-- we're not going to find it, let's just go!"

"No-- I'm not leaving until we find it!"

Victor cursed angrily.

"Shit, woman, you're almost more stubborn than your father!"

"Oh, shut up!"

"Victor and I'll check upstairs," Tyler sighed, unwilling to listen to the dark-haired researcher and brunette woman bicker once again. "You can check down here. If we don't find it in ten minutes, we leave and meet up with Leslie, Erika and Alex-- alright, Rylee?"

"...fine."

Tyler dragged a disgruntled Victor up to the second floor. Rylee rummaged through the kitchen, searching for her golden cross...

--------

"It's not _here._"

"Victor, shut up already-- it has to be in this house somewhere."

"It's probably still hanging around her neck..."

"Well, let's keep looking, just in case it _is_ up here."

Victor and Tyler continued their search...

"It's been seven minutes, Tyler."

"...let's go see if Rylee needs help looking downstairs--"

They froze...

Rylee had let out a shriek of terror.

"_Rylee!_"

Tyler and Victor raced down the stairs, into the living room--

Rylee struggled with the thick arm wrapped around her neck, her cross dangling from her clenched hand...

Tyler and Victor froze in shock as they saw the Police officer restraining Rylee, a strong arm wrapped around her slender throat, threatening to suffocate the woman.

"Rylee!"

"Victor-- T-Tyler--!"

"Ah, ah, ah- quiet, missy," the officer growled, tightening his grasp, causing Rylee to let out a strangled choking sound. "One wrong move, and you won't be worrying about your pretty little cross anymore..."

Victor stealthily slipped into the kitchen, leaving a very terrified Tyler to witness the scene...

"How did you find us...?" the blonde man spoke, his brown eyes wide with fear, surprise, and slight confusion.

"Ohh, yes- about that," the officer grinned, unfazed by Rylee desperately clawing at his arm. "It took us a while to figure it out, yes... but once we realized that you had your spies, we decided that we could have a few ourselves..."

"_Who?!_"

"Dr. Owen was more than willing to _save_ lives, if it meant finally exposing who was at the core of this little rebellion--"

The front door slammed open behind the Police officer--

Victor shoved a five-inch knife into the man's side.

"You actually thought we'd be so easy to get rid of?" the Romanian man spat as he twisted the blade, watching the officer slowly collapse, releasing his hold on Rylee.

"Dude--" Tyler gawked. "Y-you just--"

"Thank God for back doors, eh?"

"You just _killed_ him--!"

"Rylee, you okay?" Victor asked, ignoring Tyler as he left the dying man's side.

"Y-yeah," she gasped, backing away as she quickly put her cross back on. "...I-I've got it now, let's go..."

The three began to run towards the basement--

A gunshot rang out--

Rylee crumpled to the ground.

The Police officer let his gun slip out of his hands before he finally died...

"_RYLEE!_"

Tyler quickly picked Rylee off the floor, panicking as he saw blood flowing down her back and dripping from the exit wound on her chest...

"Victor, it went all the way through--!"

"_Shit!_ C'mon, we have to get out of here; we can help her after we're out of the house--"

"But--"

"_Move it, Tyler!!_"

Rylee was only vaguely aware of Tyler and Victor's somewhat panicked conversation...

The world around her faded to black.

--------

(End chapter nine.

Chapter ten will be up soon... please review.)


	10. Reunion

(Okay, where the hell IS everyone?

I mean, seriously... it's like everyone anonymous fell off the face of the earth.

Anyways, this is _le chapter au dramatique._

Say you love my Frenglish.

Everyone except Rylee(it's easier this way) © Nintendo

Rylee © Me)

--------

Days of the Phoenix

Chapter Ten- Reunion

--------

Rylee squirmed fitfully in her sleep, tossing and turning.

Her inner demons would not leave her alone...

Faint voices, some of which she couldn't even recognize, echoed in her mind, a dull throb of chaotic noise that grew to monumental proportions...

Rylee whimpered softly, about to scream at the voices, to tell them to shut_up--_

A cool hand began softly caressing her face.

The energetic voices in her head calmed down...

Though her eyes remained closed, Rylee finally woke up.

"Oh, don't even deny it-- you thought she was a goner, didn't you?"

"I did _not_. She's a Kasal-- a bullet wasn't going to stop her."

"You're in denial again..."

That second voice... she knew it...

"Ugh... whatever. The only thing _you're_ good at is making my life miserable. You're a terrible brother."

The first voice laughed.

"Oh, you _do _know she's awake now, right...?"

Rylee tensed up slightly...

The hand on her face carefully moved to her hair, stroking it gently.

"Yeah, I know... when she's ready, she'll open her eyes."

The hand paused.

"Won't you, Rylee...?"

Her hazel eyes slid open slowly...

She was lying on a couch; the first thing she saw was a faded white ceiling. There was a calm quiet- a peace that she hadn't felt in so long...

The hand that was tousling her hair gently brushed away the stray strands of dark brown hair that fell into her hazel eyes. Rylee turned to see who was doing that--

She had only seen him twice before; that had been fourteen years ago, before he had been murdered in cold blood. Then, he had been thin, bloody-- broken...

But now, he was here, in perfect condition...

Rylee couldn't believe-- she hardly _dared_ to believe--

"...Dad...?"

Behind a pair of oval-lensed glasses, Sidney Kasal's hazel eyes sparkled with life as he smiled at his daughter.

"Hey, Rylee..."

Rylee let out a sudden sob as she bolted upright.

"D-Dad..."

She leaned over, tightly hugging her father, tears streaming down her face.

"D-Dad... it's you, i-it's really you... I th-thought that I'd n-never get to see you ag-gain... D-Dad...!"

Sidney wrapped his arms around Rylee, rubbing her back soothingly as he quietly hushed his crying daughter.

"Shh... Rylee, it's okay..."

"I-I missed you... I only really saw you once, but... for fourteen years, I've missed you..."

Sidney smiled softly, stroking Rylee's long brown hair.

"Rylee, I've always been with you..."

Rylee pulled away from her father, looking up at him with inquisitive, teary hazel eyes.

Sidney carefully ran his fingers over the thin golden chains around Rylee's neck, eventually lifting the cross and locket up.

"Maybe I wasn't with you in person... but I've been by your side for these fourteen years. I wasn't going to leave you... not in times like these..."

"Never mind that you had to make up for eight lost years, Sidney..."

Rylee whipped her head around-- and did a double-take as she saw another person in the room.

"Th-there's_two_ of you?!"

Sidney sighed.

"Greg, how many times to I have to ask you to not do that?"

Greg Kasal laughed, his hazel eyes reflecting his youthful enthusiasm as he tousled his niece's hair affectionately.

"Hey there, Rylee... I'm Greg, your uncle. It's nice to finally meet you."

"Y-yeah... s-same here-- ...wait..."

Rylee's eyes widened.

"I saw you that day! I remember-- I saw you, and three others... when you were hanged..."

"Oh, so you were there too? Well, too bad we couldn't have met under better circumstances, yeah?"

Greg's happy-go-lucky nature struck Rylee as... odd, at best.

"Ignore him," Sidney waved off Greg's comment, eliciting a laugh from the elder twin. "Nothing sticks to him."

"...well... that's not... _entirely_ true. ...it stuck when I saw... _that_ happen, Sidney."

Greg's smile melted away, replaced by a solemn, almost forlorn, expression.

"...you wouldn't remember that, though..."

"...I can imagine what it was like."

Sidney's hazel eyes flickered with anger as memories of that bitter day resurfaced in his mind.

"Dad...? Is something wrong?"

The troubled look in his hazel eyes vanished as Sidney refocused his attention onto his daughter.

"No-- everything's fine, Rylee. ...is there anything you want to know?"

"Ask him what the meaning of life is!"

"Greg, I _will_ throw something heavy at you, and you _will_ lose consciousness."

Greg chuckled as Rylee wondered briefly...

"...actually, there is something that's been puzzling me..."

"Yes?"

"...where are we, exactly?"

Sidney glanced around the room.

"Hm... well, I'm fairly certain that we're in my living room..."

"Well, okay-- maybe I should have been more specific. _Where?_" Rylee repeated. "I mean, obviously, we're in a house-- but you both died... so, am I hallucinating? Or am I--"

"Oh! I know where we are!" Greg's eyes suddenly lit up. "Can I tell her? Pleeeeeeease, Sidney?"

"No."

"C'mooon, killjoy..."

"Absolutely not!"

"Greg, where am I?"

Greg grinned.

"No, Greg, don't--"

"You're in Heaven, Rylee!"

Rylee froze.

"...I'm_dead?!_"

"_Damnit, Greg!_ Stop traumatizing my daughter!"

Greg laughed, fleeing the room, avoiding Sidney's intense glare.

"...Dad...?"

Sidney's stern expression softened as he noticed the worried look on Rylee's face.

"Am I... dead...?"

Sidney slowly pulled his daughter close, hugging her loosely.

"No, Rylee-- you're not dead. Not by a long shot."

Rylee was confused.

"W-what? But, then... why am I here? I thought that only dead people would end up here--!"

"Rylee, Rylee-- calm down, okay? Don't get worked up..."

Sidney pulled away, brushing Rylee's hair out of her worried, pale face.

"You died for... less than a minute. So, until you wake up in the real world... you're staying here. Okay...?"

Rylee nodded softly, her hazel eyes fixated on her father.

"Okay... okay. I understand. ...but... Dad? I have another question..."

"Yes, Rylee?"

She fidgeted nervously.

"...have I done the right thing? The protesting, the- the bombs, and defying the system-- was it the right thing, or... or was I wrong about it all?"

Sidney let out a soft sigh.

"Rylee, you have been true to your convictions-- and as long as you do that, then yes-- you're doing the right thing," he began. "Oh, there_are_ a few things you've done that were questionable-- your little one-night stand comes to mind..."

Rylee squirmed, blushing furiously with embarrassment. Sidney chuckled softly, placing a hand on his daughter's shoulder.

"...but despite those few things... I couldn't be more proud of you, Rylee."

Rylee looked up at her smiling father...

A grin began to play at her lips.

"Thanks, Dad-- ah...!"

The room around her began to fade...

"What, what's wrong, Rylee?" Sidney asked, his voice sounding slightly worried-- and distant.

"The-the room... it's fading away...!"

"...because you're waking up..." her father replied, a sad smile creeping onto his face. "It's time for you to go back..."

Rylee couldn't help it; she threw herself towards her father, tears falling down her face as she wrapped Sidney into a tight hug.

"I don't want to go," she sobbed. "Not now... not when I've finally seen you again..."

"I know you don't, Rylee, but you have to," Sidney whispered calmly, returning his daughter's hug. "But I'll always be with you... okay?"

The brunette woman nodded slowly.

"And, will you do two things for me when you wake up...?"

"Of course, Dad... what are they?"

"Please... go ahead and smack Victor upside the head. Tell him I said he needs to clean up his language..."

Rylee allowed a small chuckle to escape her lips.

"Sure, Dad. What else...?"

Sidney smiled softly.

"...take care of my granddaughter, would you?"

Rylee shot her head up, her eyes wide.

"W-what? Y-you mean-- I'm--?!"

"Take care of her, will you? And of yourself..."

"Dad--!"

Everything around Rylee abruptly faded to black.

--------

(End chapter ten.

I wrote this story for this chapter. I love it very very much. -heart-

Please review!)


	11. Conscious

(It has come to my attention through my army of secret ninjas that someone(s) is(are) leaving reviews for finished stories and/or oneshots and saying "please update".

I will say this once, and in the most profane way possible.

WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU THINKING. DON'T FUCKING REVIEW A STORY THAT'S FUCKING FINISHED, SAYING "PLZ UPDATE". _IT'S FUCKING FINISHED!_

Okay, I'm mellowed out now.

So, this weekend I was in Texas for an aikido seminar. Fun fun fun! There'll be a picture of me grimacing in pain on my DeviantART soon.

Check it out!

Let's begin.

Tyler, Victor, Leslie, Sidney © Nintendo

Rylee, Alex, Erika © Me)

--------

Days of the Phoenix

Chapter Eleven- Conscious

--------

"Shit... that was too close. She almost died..."

"If it had gone any higher, she'd have been a goner for sure..."

They were faint... but Rylee could recognize those voices very clearly.

A small pain ebbed in her chest.

"Guys, I think she's starting to wake up..."

_Damn! Am I ever going to be able to just sit and rest?_

Rylee heard people shuffling, gathering closely around her...

She slowly opened her hazel eyes.

Leslie and Tyler's tired, worried faces were the first things she saw; Alexander and Erika slipped into her field of vision soon after, their eyes sparkling faintly in the dim light.

"Rylee, you're awake!" Leslie cried softly, tightly wrapping her arms around the young woman. "Oh thank God... we were so worried..."

"Unh...?" Rylee muttered softly; her voice was weak, but audible. "Leslie...? What happened?"

"You got shot," Tyler explained quietly, his brown eyes seeming almost distant. "You wouldn't wake up, no matter what we did... we thought you were going to die..."

_...but I did,_ Rylee thought briefly. _I did... didn't I?_

"But you're alright now, right, Aunt Rylee?" the children chirped, practically bellyflopping onto the young Kasal woman.

"_Oof!_ Jeez, you two are _heavy..._" Rylee groaned, shoving Alex and Erika off of her stomach. "Yes, I'm fine... but where's Victor? I need to find--"

"I'm here," Victor's drawling voice cut through the empty silence like a knife.

"Get over here."

"Why should I?"

"Just--_ugh._ I have to tell you something important. Get the hell over here."

Victor slunk over to Rylee's side as the other four people got out of his way.

"Fine. I'm here. What the fuck do you want?"

Rylee had to admit, she didn't think she was _that_ strong... but it gave her a sense of great satisfaction to see Victor crumple to the ground after she smacked him in the side of the head.

"_Ow!_ What the _fuck,_ Rylee?!"

Another whack to the face.

"Gah!"

"He told me to tell you to stop swearing!" Rylee barked, oblivious to Tyler and Leslie's shocked stares.

"What the fuck are you babbling about now?!"

A third blow to the head.

"My _father!_ My _father_ told me to slap you upside the head and tell you to stop swearing!"

"Okay,_ okay!_ Christ, woman, you're out of your _mind..._"

Rylee sighed, slowly playing with her hair as she stood up, watching Victor stumble away, muttering under his breath.

"So... where are we?" she asked, her hazel eyes darting around. "How long has it been since the bombs started falling-- or do we not know?"

"It's been about three days," Leslie informed, watching her daughter and Alexander wrestle in the dark tunnel. "The bombs stopped falling about an hour ago... we were waiting for you to wake up before we went back outside. Now that you're up..."

"...let's go see the damage," Rylee sighed softly.

She had a very bad feeling that she was going to regret those words...

--------

(End chapter eleven.

Do you have any idea how tired I am? I thought for sure I'd be getting more than five hours of sleep a night in Houston. Damn Mythbusters. It's all their fault, really.

Don't put unrestrained bowling balls in your back seat. It might rip your head off.

Please review!)


	12. Out of Ashes

(Whoa... this story's almost done already.

...somebody's gone and kidnapped me and replaced me with someone productive!

After this chapter is the last one...aren't you all excited?

Well, let's kick this off...

Let's begin.

Tyler, Victor, Leslie, Sidney © Nintendo

Rylee, Alex, Erika, the family © Me)

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Days of the Phoenix

Chapter Twelve- Out of Ashes

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It took all her willpower to keep her from collapsing...

Rylee staggered backward, horrified by the sight.

"This is... oh God..."

Small fires and a thick fog made of dust did not completely obscure the destruction that had befallen Angeles Bay. Rubble was strewn across the cracked streets and scorched yards; large houses were reduced to nothing but broken walls sticking out of the ground. Large buildings, off in the distance, were half-destroyed and barely standing... occasionally, the sound of a falling skyscraper could be heard, even from halfway across the city.

"...there were about five million people in the Bay area, before we started bombing," Victor muttered, kicking a shard of brick out of his path.

"How many of them went into hiding?" Rylee asked, trying to keep Alex and Erika in sight.

"About two million... give or take a half a million people who either got tipped off or fled the city."

"...so, this is what three million dead people starts to look like," Rylee chuckled bitterly. "...let's try to find the others who went into hiding."

Rylee, Leslie, Tyler, Victor, Erika and Alex carefully began walking along the ruined sidewalk, passing by the broken homes and the burning cars...

Alex could faintly hear tired cries coming from one of the dilapidated homes.

"Aunt Rylee, I hear voices in that house over there-- listen!"

Rylee spun her head to look in the direction that the blonde boy was pointing in...

The large slab of unbroken wall that had draped itself at an angle against one of the surviving walls was being pushed slightly upward; Rylee, too, could nearly make out the sound of a woman and man frantically crying for help.

"...Victor, Tyler, come and help me."

Tyler and Victor gawked at Rylee as she carefully began making her way over to the ruined building.

"What are you doing?!" Tyler exclaimed, his brown eyes widening.

"I'm going to help whoever's there... help me."

"But they'd turn us in in less than an instant!" Victor countered, his black eyes flashing. "Do you _want_ to get yourself killed?!"

"Who would they turn us in to, Victor? Adam is dead; the Police are gone. Nobody can do anything to us..."

"Rylee, it's just one or two people... let's just--"

She snapped.

"_Only two people!?_" she shrieked. "Tyler, you and your wife are _only two people!_ Wouldn't _you_ want someone to go and save you when you were in danger?!"

"Rylee--"

"My _mother_ and _father_ were _only_ two people," she continued, tears beginning to fall from her eyes. "And look-- because of them, I, _one_ person, am here, trying to do something! What would have happened if any of us three would have died earlier?! What then?!"

She paused, trying to stem the tears pouring down her face.

"If you won't help me help them," she sobbed angrily, "then go without me. _I'll_ go and help them."

Rylee turned, continuing towards the broken building.

Erika, after a brief pause, ran to her side.

"Wait for me, Aunt Rylee..."

"...she has a point," Leslie murmured softly, her amber eyes full of sorrow.

"So, what will we do...?" Tyler asked no one in particular, hesitant to make a decision.

"...Tyler, get your lazy ass over there. We're going to go help her."

Tyler stood in shock as Victor stormed off towards the young Kasal woman.

"W-wait, Victor! Wait for me!"

--------

The married couple had been leery of accepting their aid...

But they were eternally grateful for the Damned, who had come to their rescue in their darkest hour.

"Ma'am... why did this happen?" the redheaded woman asked Rylee, carefully holding her baby close to her body. "Why was everything destroyed? ...I'm not blaming you, please don't think that-- but, I know you had to have been involved somehow..."

Rylee sighed, brushing her long brown hair behind her shoulders.

"...we just wanted to get rid of this system," Rylee began softly. "And of Adam. But to do that... we needed to destroy the places... that wouldn't stop believing his words on their own."

"...so you did this just to get the power?" the woman muttered, averting her gaze in disgust.

"No," Rylee shook her head. "We did this because we're trying to fix the way things are done. If you don't like it, and just want life to go back to normal... well, anywhere rural has been left untouched... and I'm fairly certain that San Diego is intact as well..."

"...why would you choose this path for yourself?"

Rylee stopped. The woman looked at her, waiting for an answer.

"...my mother and father were torn apart by the Police," she spoke, her hazel eyes flashing. "I finally met my father... the day before he had been murdered for 'disobeying the system'. I'm trying to change things..."

_Take care of my granddaughter, would you?_

Rylee gently placed a hand on her stomach.

"...so that my child can grow up, knowing that her mother won't be taken away... and so that I can live to see my grandchildren live in a world where their lives actually mean something."

She continued to move forward.

--------

(End chapter twelve.

Oh man-- can you believe it? One chapter left. I mean... daaaaamn. And the story's not even a month old yet!

Please review!)


	13. Reborn

(You know that feeling you get when you're supposed to do something important, but you don't?

I feel that all the time now.

Hey, story pimpage time! Go check out my wonderful little horror story "Mine", rated M for blood and guts!

Then go read "Reliving Childhood" so you can get this really freaky feeling as you shift from freaked out to OMG FLUFF.

Rhapsody in Blue is an amazing song. I must watch Fantasia 2000 again.

Let's begin the end.

Greg, Sidney, Derek, Cybil, Victor © Nintendo

Others © Me)

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Days of the Phoenix

Chapter Thirteen- Reborn

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"_Ow!_ Mom, he _bit_ me!"

"Leave your brother alone, Greg!"

"But he started iiiiiit!"

"Do I have to pull over and tie you to the roof?"

Seven-year-old Gregory Kasal slumped against the car seat, sulking.

That had happened once before; he was not particularly eager to relive the experience.

His younger identical twin, Sidney, rubbed his arm, glaring at Greg from behind his glasses, perched haphazardly on his face.

"That's what I thought, Greg."

The twins silently made faces at each other before they stared out their windows, their dark brown hair getting ruffled in the breeze.

"Mom, why are there so many new buildings being built?" Sidney asked as he noticed all the construction machinery piled into empty lots, not yet marked with the dust of disintegrated concrete and dirt.

"Because Angeles Bay doesn't have enough homes or places for people to work," she explained gently, taking her exit off of the recently-rebuilt highway. "They're building apartments so people don't have to live on the streets, and places for them to work at so they can stay off the streets."

"Ohhh..."

"Your great-grandmother was born around the time that they started rebuilding the city-- _everything_ was new then," she continued. "She said that her mother told her the city had been destroyed by bombs..."

"Really?" Greg asked, his hazel eyes lighting up. "Did they fall to the ground..."

"Ad blow everything to bits?!" Sidney exclaimed, picking up on his brother's cue.

Their mother sighed.

"It's not something to take lightly, boys... do you know how many people died?"

"Uh... a thousand?" Sidney guessed.

"That's not big enough," Greg argued. "Two thousand."

"Two point four _million._ Two point four million people... all dying in the course of three days. Can you imagine? It would be like everyone in the city dying now..."

Greg and Sidney sat in an awed silence.

--------

"I don't want to be here."

Greg and his mother turned to see Sidney standing in the doorway, refusing to walk forward.

"Last time we were here, Dad died and you started crying," he spoke, frowning. "This place is sad; I don't want to go in."

"Sidney, be reasonable," his mother sighed. "Nobody we know is going to die today; we're just visiting someone who's sick. Okay?"

"Who?"

"She's part of the family... Sidney, you can refuse to enter the room, but you have to at least come into the hospital. I can't let you stay outside by yourself."

After much hesitation, Sidney entered the building, rushing to catch up with his mother and brother as they walked down the hall.

--------

"Oh, won't you leave an old woman to rest...?"

"Oh, come now-- I know you're happy to see me. You were the one who called and told me to visit, remember?"

The old woman smiled, her ninety-plus-year-old body showing the wear and tear she had endured over the years as she looked up at her great-granddaughter with tired hazel eyes.

"Well, I didn't expect you to come so soon, Kaleigh--"

"Katherine."

"Oh, I did it again-- sorry, dear..."

Katherine Kasal smiled briefly.

"Well, my sons had today off of school, so I brought them with me..."

"Oh, so there's finally boys in the Kasal family tree again?" the old woman smiled--

The door to the room flew open; Sidney and Greg dashed in, collapsing on the floor, exhausted.

"...what did you two do this time?"

"Nothing!" the twins chimed as they stood up, rushing to their mother's side.

"Ugh... I give up on you two... Greg, Sidney, this is your great-great-grandmother, Rylee..."

"...Greg and Sidney, you said?"

Rylee's hazel eyes flashed as she slowly sat upright, filled with an energy she hadn't felt in over seventy years.

"Both of you come here..."

Greg and Sidney quickly approached her bedside, not at all surprised when Rylee carefully wrapped her arms around them...

Rylee tightly hugged the two descendants that had taken on the near-perfect likeness of her father and uncle.

"it's so wonderful to finally meet you two," she smiled, pulling away slowly. "Ah... I am blessed..."

Greg squirmed; he was not at all good with sappy first meetings with relatives he never even knew existed. He slipped away, darting out of the room and down the hall.

"No-- _Greg...!_"

Katherine ran out, sighing exasperatedly as she followed Greg to try and mitigate any damage he was bound to cause.

"Rylee, is it true that you were there when they destroyed the city?" Sidney asked, looking up at her with inquisitive hazel eyes.

A small, sad smile graced her tired, wrinkled face, the memory coming back with disturbing clarity.

"Ah... yes, I was. It was not a happy day... but, let's not talk of such things," she replied, adamantly refusing to plague her descendant with unnecessarily grim stories that would only traumatize him. "Tell me, Sidney... do you know where yours and your brother's names came from?"

"Nuh-uh," Sidney shook his head slowly, keeping his eyes fixated on Rylee's face.

"Well, my father's name was Sidney," Rylee explained, the gentle grin never leaving her face.

"_Really?_" Sidney's hazel eyes shone with wonder.

"Mhm... and he had an older twin brother named Greg..."

"Woooow..."

Rylee chuckled, her stiff, wrinkled fingers slowly reaching up and fumbling with the chains around her neck.

"Before he died, my father gave these to me..."

She held the chains out.

Sidney took them with his small, pale hands...

"And now, I'm giving them to you."

The golden cross and locket still glimmered as brightly as they had when Rylee first received them, just under ninety years ago... they reflected off of the lenses of Sidney's oval-shaped glasses.

"They'll keep you safe when you're in trouble," she explained as Sidney began to put them on around his neck. "Take good care of them, will you?"

Sidney looked up at Rylee once the cross and locket were secured around his neck.

"Of course."

--------

Greg Kasal sighed.

It was days like these that he doubted his decision to go into medicine...

He threw his jacket onto the couch, wandering into the kitchen to grab a soda...

The phone rang.

He quickly ran over to answer it.

"This is Greg Kasal."

"He-llo there, Greg."

Greg's eyes lit up, a coy grin spreading across his face as he recognized that sultry voice.

"Hey, Cybil... I missed you too, but at least wait until you're here in person before you start _that_ mind game with me, alright?"

Cybil Myers laughed, quickly dropping the amorous tone in favor of her normal speaking voice.

"So, how are things at Caduceus, Cybil?"

"Ah, same as usual," Cybil sighed, carefully choosing her next words to avoid sounding catty. "One of our new people is... there's no other way to describe him. Victor's a bit of a bitch. But he's very smart, so we'll put up with him... what about you?"

"Ah, same story here, pretty much," Greg chuckled, opening the fridge, pulling out an icy cold beverage. "One of my new residents is excessively clingy, but there is one that's a really good kid-- Derek. He's got some serious potential, if he could just focus... I wouldn't be surprised if he singlehandedly lowered mortality rates at Hope by at least five percent, if not more."

"Wait... are you admitting that he could be better than you in the operating room?"

"When Hell freezes over."

Cybil laughed.

"Hey-- don't forget that we promised to visit your brother and Victoria at seven thirty. And, just so you know, Greg... there _is_ such a thing as just arriving fashionably, and not fashionably _late_."

Greg chuckled.

"Same goes for you, Cybil. I'll see you there."

"See you, Greg."

--------

The tale of the phoenix is the tale of rebirth. After a lifetime has passed, and the phoenix is ready to die, it burns itself, then rises from the ashes, reborn- better than before.

It is not so obvious, but humans improve themselves in much the same manner, destroying themselves when they become too corrupt to function as they are.

Rebirth was an inevitable part of their history...

Now, again, the phoenix had risen from its ashes.

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(End story.

Twenty-nine chapters, and exactly two months later, the "Days of" series is finished(except for maybe Days of Our Lives).

You all have been absolutely amazing-- thanks for joining me on this roller-coaster of a ride.

Please review!)


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